Garmin Is The Worm In Jobs' iPhone Apple

Garmin's backing into the cellphone business in a big way. They've already got the GPS navigation thing down pat, so why not add voice, websurfing, MP3 playback, a camera, and a touchscreen to their devices, and save customers from lugging two, three or four items around instead of one? Meet the Nuvifone.

The Nuvifone includes two features relatively new to Garmin
navigation — a “where am I” button that tells the user the nearest
address, intersection and nearby emergency facilities, and another that
can be used to find a lost car in large parking lots.

Beyond
navigation, the Nuvifone offers features that have become common in
smartphones, such as text messaging and e-mail, as well as some others
that aren’t as common.

The phone’s three-megapixel camera,
besides shooting video, goes beyond the ordinary. Photos shot with a
Nuvifone are embedded with the location where the photo was taken, a
process called “geotagging.” Users also can take a photo of a bar or
restaurant as they enter, send it by phone to another Nuvifone user,
and the recipient’s phone will guide him to the location.

I don't know about you, but I'm clueless enough to need every bit of that direction finding. The carrier for the Garmin is yet to be determined. It uses 3.5G technology, popular in Europe and Asia but uncommon in America. The price is not announced, either. Expected out in Fall of 2008.